I would like to use my first post to expand on a framework I introduced in the Welcome thread for evaluating moral theories, and to request your feedback.
This thesis rests on the fact that a moral theory is a tool for helping us make choices. Starting from this premise, I believe that a moral theory needs to meet three criteria for it to be acceptable:
a) Its comprising principles must be non-contradictory. I think this is pretty self evident: if a theory consists of a number of principles that contradict each other, there will be situations where the theory will suggest contradictory actions - hence failing its purpose as a tool to enable choice making.
b) Its comprising principles must be non-arbitrary as far as possible. What I mean by this is that the principles must be derived logically from facts on which everyone agrees. Otherwise, if a moral theory rests on an arbitrary and subjective principle, the theory's advocates will never be able to convince people who do not share that principle of their theory's validity.
c) If the principles of the moral theory are taken to their logical conclusion, they must not lead to a society that the theory's proponents themselves would consider dystopian.
Note that my premise (i.e. that a moral theory is supposed to help us make choices) necessitates that the theory is not vague. So saying that a utilitarian system, using some magical measurement of utility, is a good moral theory is pointless in my view.
However, I want to draw a distinction between morality at the social level and morality at the personal level. The former refers to a moral system whose proponents believe should apply to the whole world; the latter, to the principles by which people live their private lives. The three criteria I listed should only be used to evaluate morality at the social level: if you want to impose your principles over every single human, you'd better make sure they are non-contradictory, acceptable by everyone and won't mess up the world.
Morality at the personal level is different: if you are using your principles to determine your actions only, it's fine if these principles are arbitrary. If lying makes you feel uncomfortable, I think it's fair enough for you to value honesty as a principle, even if you cannot provide a very rational justification.
Finally, one final comment: I believe there are some moral issues which cause disagreement because of the fundamental inability of our language to define certain concepts. For instance, the whole debate on abortion comes down to the definition of life - and since we lack one, I don't think we can ever rationally settle that debate.
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Now I also have a question for whomever is reading this: the only theory I can think of that meets all three criteria is libertarianism:
a) It only has one principle - do not do anything that infringes on other people's liberty - so it's inherently consistent.
b) The fact on which everyone has to agree: we have no proof of some sort of moral authority, hence any moral command is arbitrary. In the absence of such moral authority, no-one has the right to impose their own morality on others.
c) Though libertarianism may lead to meanness - e.g. inability to condemn people for lack of kindness or charity - it's not dystopian by my view.
My question is - are there other theories that would meet all three criteria? (I think total anarchy, including the lack of condemnation of violence, could meet the first two criteria, but I think few would argue it meets the third one).
Hey, I appreciate your ability to engage constructively with a critique of your views! Rare gift, that.
As other people have pointed out, maybe we should consider here what we mean by "arbitrary". In your initial statement you said that non-arbitrary was that which was derived logically from facts on which everyone agrees. So to avoid ambiguity maybe we should just say that criterion (b) is "the principle(s) of the moral system must be derived logically from facts on which everyone agrees".
Now, there are no facts, as fact relates to this discussion, on which everyone agrees, and there never will be. There are, of course, facts, but among the seven-odd billion human inhabitants of the planet you will always find people to disagree with any of them. There are literally still people who think the sun revolves around the earth. I swear that's not hyperbole - google "modern geocentrism".
(By the way, you also said "if a moral theory rests on an arbitrary and subjective principle, the theory's advocates will never be able to convince people who do not share that principle of their theory's validity" - but millions of religious converts give the lie to that. Subjectivity is demonstrably no barrier to persuasion - not saying that's a good thing but it's a real thing.)
So say we cut (b) down to "logically derived from facts". I think that's useful. Facts are truly, objectively real, total consensus isn't. But upon which facts, then, do we start to build our moral system? You state that your chosen basis is the fact that not everyone agrees about moral authority. As gjm pointed out, there seems to be a gap between "we humans can't agree on what constitutes moral authority" and "nobody should impose their morality on any other person in a way that limits their freedom". After all, despite our differing views on what is or is not moral, most people do believe in the basic idea that it's justifiable to constrain the freedom of others in at least some situations.
But I'll leave that bit aside for now to go back to the issue of fact as a basis for a moral system. Your fact isn't the only fact. It's also a fact that some people are physically stronger and smarter than others. Some people base their moral system on that fact, and say that might is right, the strong have an absolute right to rule the weak, will to power and so on and on. Douchetarians, basically. There are many facts upon which one could build a moral system. How do I pick one, with some defensible basis for my choice among many?
I take as my founding fact that fact which appears to be the most fundamental, the most basically applicable to humanity, the most basically applicable to life - that it wants to keep being alive. Find me a fact about humanity more bedrock-basic than that and I swear I'll rethink my moral system.
This brings me back to criterion (a), consistency.
The principle - there is only one - is "what serves the species". That is, what allows us to keep living with each other and co-operating with each other, because that's necessary to our continued existence. Every other moral principle is a branch on that trunk. Honesty, justice, personal liberty, civic responsibility, mercy, compassion - we came up with those concepts, evolved them, because they can all be applied to meet the goal. So the non-subjective answer to "how do you balance principles in any given situation" is "what balance best serves the goal of keeping society ticking?". Now that's difficult to decide but there's a major difference between an objectively correct answer that's difficult to find and there being no objectively correct answer.
So do I reject criterion (a)? Not exactly. What I think is that by starting with the moral principles as a tool for moral choice-making you're skipping a step. Why worry about making moral choices at all unless there's some reason to do so? The first step is to define the goal to which making moral choices must tend. Once you define that, you can have multiple principles which may seem to be sometimes in conflict with each other - the consistency comes from the goal. The principles are to be applied in a way which is always consistent with meeting the goal. Now, some people say the goal is "maximize happiness". You might say your goal falls somewhere in that band - or you might go all out and say the goal is "maximize freedom", period. I say we can be neither happy nor free if we're not here and if we're not able to successfully live together we won't be here. I say start at the start - keep ourselves existing, and then work in as much happiness and freedom as we can manage.
And just to be totally clear, I am saying that sometimes "maintaining personal liberty inviolate" is not the way to meet the goal "keep humanity existing". "Disregard personal liberty and afford it no value" is also not the way to meet the goal. But "personal freedom entirely unrestricted" is simply not a survival strategy. Forget humans - chimps punish or prevent behaviors that endanger the group. Every social animal I'm aware of does. And for all our wonderful evolved brains and tools and self-awareness and power of language, that's still what we are - social animals.
Thanks for the continuing dialogue!
I am fine to tweak the definition of (b) to be facts-based as you say. And you are right to say that there may be many facts to choose from - I never said libertarianism is definitely the only possible theory to meet all criteria, just the only one I could come up with. So, yes, Douchetarianists, as you call them, could also claim that their theory meets (b), but I'd argue it fails to meet (c).
The problem with your moral theory, as I see it, is that it also fails to meet (c), because there could be many plausible, but ho... (read more)